Move over oasis: New multimillion-dollar travel center coming to Belvidere

Rockford Register Star

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Move over oasis: New multimillion-dollar travel center coming to Belvidere

Chris Green, Rockford Register Star - 8h ago

BELIVIDERE — Construction activity is underway on 43 acres for a multimillion-dollar retail development that includes extending Crystal Parkway from Tripp Road to the Interstate-90 exit at Genoa Road.

The development will feature a travel center with a 12,000-square-foot convenience store with three restaurants — Jimmy John's, Wing Stop, and Smoothie King — and a 16-vehicle fuel bay with parking for 65 semi-trucks.

Co-developer Mike MacKinnon of The Heidner Family Office in Hoffman Estates said the venture has been nearly two years in the making.

"It's very exciting," he said. "North of Crystal Parkway we have three retail outlets and right behind that we're in talks right now with several hotel operators who are interested in locating there."

MacKinnon said the first phase of the development is extending Crystal Parkway from Tripp Road to Genoa Road. "This is going to extend the city's gateway all the way to the interstate," he said.

"The fuel center should be operational in the summer of 2023 and the retail development will be completed at the end of 2023 or early 2024 and the hotel will be after that."

MacKinnon said the overall investment is north of $20 million and will bring temporary construction jobs and permanent full- and part-time jobs.

'Staggering' amount of traffic

MacKinnon and Belvidere's Community Development Planner Gina DelRose said the location is ideal because of its visibility and proximity to the interstate to the south and the Walmart Supercenter to the north.

While the new travel center will be close to the Belvidere Oasis, DelRose said there is more than enough vehicle traffic to support the new development.

"The oasis is limited on space," DelRose said. "They can't expand."

She also spoke of an Illinois Department of Transportation freight study that is expected to be released this month and called the amount of daily semi truck freight traffic "staggering."

"If you took every semi truck in the country and drove through Illinois twice, that's how much traffic we have," DelRosa said. "So yeah. We have plenty of semis to share for the new truck stop."

Continued growth in Belvidere

The travel center development is coming on the heels of General Mill's groundbreaking in August for a state-of-the-art 1.3 million-square-foot distribution center at 1210 Irene Road.

Pamela Lopez-Fettes, executive director of Growth Dimensions, a public-private organization in Belvidere that works to ignite economic development throughout the region, worked hand-in-hand with the city to help bring both developments to fruition.

She said Belvidere has a "business friendly" environment noting the city passed the travel center development with incentives "that include some sales tax support."

Lopez-Fettes also said the travel center development is in an enterprise zone.

"So, they get some offset at cost on purchasing materials, building permit fees as well as property taxes," she said.

Chris Green: 815-987-1241; cgreen@rrstar.com; @chrisfgreen

This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star

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